The Same World
by Dave101
Summary: Lyra and Will are getting on alright without each other, but Lyra's world is in trouble.
1. Part One

This is a follow on from the Amber Spyglass, (DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE AMBER SPYGLASS) it was really written to make me feel better after the ending and I just thought you guys/gals might want to hear it too.  
All of these characters (except for the ones not in his books, which I made up) are owned by Phillip Pullman.   
I realise that this story has a lot of faults and as this is my very first draft then I will improve it and continue it until I feel I like the ending. Please don't flame me too much as this is my very first story.  
  
  
Chapter one: The revelation  
The buzzing of the zeppelin speeding over the countryside below was usually enough to make Lyra fall asleep, but she could not sleep at all these days. She missed Will terribly and she knew that if he were here he'd calm her down and soothe her with his soft voice. But he wasn't there and they would never see each other again. "Never see him again" she thought, "is a thought worse than anything I've ever had in my life" and Pantalaimon felt her sorrow and clung close to her, in his permanent pine marten form, feeling the beating of her heart against his soft fur and wishing that they could go back to Will's world, to see him again. But thinking only brought the pain back into focus. Lyra tried to concentrate on the althiometer, remembering all she knew and she was going to learn more. Very soon. With that thought she dozed off to sleep in the uncomfortable seat, holding Pantalaimon close.   
At that very same time, Will was regretting parting with Lyra. It was only four weeks ago but it seemed like four years. She was constantly on his mind, although he tried to put on a happy face, Dr. Malone could see what he was thinking, and she had felt the same about her boyfriend when she was younger. As Will and Mary drove home in her car, they spoke little, each with their own private thoughts. That had been the last place that could have helped Will's mother, and they turned them away, just like all the others. Will had always been a quiet boy, keeping to himself a lot and being secretive, but with Lyra he had felt truly trusting and comfortable, and now that was gone, and his Mother's condition was deteriorating fast. He was about to lose both the people he had most loved and cared about in the world and all he had to cling to in memory was the shattered remains of the once beautiful knife. As they drove forward on the ring road, they slowed due to the traffic and the passed the hornbeam trees in a row along the edge of the garden. The Tabby cat that they had rescued, so long ago, in Cittagazze sat on the wall, licking it's paws and Will was reminded so strongly of Pantalaimon licking his wound in the Torre Del Angeli in Cittagazze that he had to hold back his tears. Mary pulled round the corner and stopped on the side of the road. She knew why he was silent and she knew she could do nothing to amend it.  
"There there, Tokin, We'll be alright," Came Will's mothers voice from the back seat, and will realised that she was talking to a mouse. What would have astonished him even more, had he not known Lyra, was that the mouse than spoke, weakly and dreamlike, like his mothers, but still audible.  
"Just as long as we get back to our world we'll be fine dear, we'll be fine…" Will was shocked, and so was Mary obviously as she squealed the breaks and brought several cars dangerously close to the small Ford. Mrs Parry was continuing "We should never have left the city Tok, if we'd have done as we were told and stayed at the house instead of following the traveller we'd be fine now. We'd be gone by now if he hadn't come all that time ago. We have to find where he took us, get back to where we belong, we could use Johnny's co-ordinates, but we can't get up there in our condition…" Will's mother had a dæmon, and what was she talking about, 'back to our own World'. The angel queen, Xaphania, who had told them that they must part had said that Lyra's world was the only place she knew of to have dæmons, but surely his mother was not born in a different world. She had been there for them all his life, he could never remember a time, without her, and then it dawned on him. He could see Mary's enquiring eyes and he knew she was about to ask the same question. How did she survive seventeen years without going home to her world, Lyra's world?   
Before this question could be asked though Will said "nine years ago, when I was eight years old, I stayed with my piano teacher for about a month. Mum said she had to go and attend to business. She wouldn't tell Mrs. Cooper or me where, or how to contact her, but she went, and came back fine and well."  
A police car had pulled up beside them and was gesturing for them to move along, as they were stopped on double yellow lines. Mary drove them slowly back to her flat and they sat down in the living room, Will's mother had gone to bed and Mary and Will sat sipping their tea in silence.   
"Will!" she said, suddenly excited and he looked up, alarmed by this sudden noise, shattering the silence. She didn't wait for him to say anything and continued.  
"I've just remembered something the I Ching told me when I was with the Muelfa, when I asked about shadow particles!" Will looked blank but she continued anyway; "Will, if I remember correctly, it told me that inside your genetics, there was a specific world that you can stay in without getting ill, that it was inherited. It speaks in a round about way but I'm almost sure that's what it meant, wait a second, I'll get the book" Will was beginning to understand, but there must be a catch somewhere, mustn't there? Mary continued, finding the page "this is it,   
  
'Written into you, it cannot change,   
Where it says, there you must stay,  
Move about and you will not live,  
Stay in your parents place just there'"  
Will realised he was holding his breath and let it out slowly.  
"Will, if you're mother came from Lyra's world, you can live there too! It's in your genes! You can find Lyra and live with her Will."  
"But there's no doorways" He said, disheartened, "I'll never get through, the angels closed them all remember?"  
"Will, if there's one thing I've learned about you during all the time that I've been with you it's that you never give up hope. That's what Lyra loved about you! You can't abandon her and your mother, you have to try Will!"   
So Will set about researching this, and while Mary went to a conference in Belgium, he searched all the Universities for anyone who knew about other universes or gates between them or anything at all. Of course this was quite hard as he was not able to mention the fact that there were parallel universes or they would think he was just a child playing a game. He searched for days and still he found nobody interested in anything of the sort. He couldn't give up, but he felt that that was the only option, he couldn't call on anybody he had ever known, the Angels Baruch and Bathamos had gone and were in a different world, Iorek Byrnison was safe in his World, ruling his kingdom and Lyra, his lovely Lyra couldn't hear him or see him. He was stuck in this world; it seemed, but the more he thought, the more possibilities appeared, one might work, if he found the right one.  
  
Chapter 2: Dame Hannah  
Dame Hannah was really a wonderful person, Lyra thought, curled up in a ball with the pine marten Pantalaimon around her neck, She had had three days under the tuition of the aging woman and she was beginning to build those ladders of meanings inside the Althiometer again. Every night, she asked how Will was and if he still remembered her, and every night she got the same answer "He Loves you more than anything else, he longs to see you again" Lyra was content and just as she moved her eyes away from the golden compass, the needle flickered again, Left, Right, Right again, Left and came to rest. Lyra memorised the pictures that it showed and got up straight away, crossed the room to her books and took out the thickest one, laid it on her lap and began to slowly turn the pages. The meanings formulated in her mind, but that couldn't be, she must have got it wrong. She rubbed her eyes sleepily and climbed back into bed, Pantalaimon nestling around her neck again. She tried to sleep, but it just wouldn't come and so she lay in bed, staring at the ceiling until the waves of sleep drifted over her like a soft blanket.   
The next morning ran according to schedule, the three girls in her dormitory and Lyra were woken up at half past seven in the morning and they washed and cleaned their faces and dæmons, at eight o'clock they traipsed downstairs, merging with the girls from the other dormitories. Her particular friend, called Alicia was there, at the top of the stairs and Lyra walked over to greet her.  
"Oh, hullo," said Alicia, as she saw Lyra, but Lyra was certain something was wrong. There was a troubled look in her eyes and her dæmon was trembling in her hand.   
"What's wrong Ali?" asked Lyra kindly  
"Oh it's so terrible Lyra!" she sobbed, clutching onto Lyra's shoulder, reminding her strongly of when she and Will found out that they would have to part. Lyra fought back her tears, brought back with a sharp pang in her heart and tried to comfort Alicia. "My aunt is a witch Lyra, I was afraid to tell you but I know you've got many friends who are witches and maybe they're in trouble too and oh!" she sobbed deeply, clutching her dæmon to her breast. Lyra waited until she could continue. "They're fighting these horrible ghosts that eat dæmons Lyra! My aunt is dead, I just found out, they took away her dæmon!" Lyra was so stunned that she had to grasp the nearby rail with her hand until her knuckles turned white. Serafina and the angels, led by Xaphania were supposed to have fought the spectres away and won easily. Now it appeared that the spectres were stronger than was estimated.  
"Ali, I have to go help the witches, I promise I'll come back, I promise." And with that she leapt down the stairs, leaving the confused Alicia at the top of the stairs, staring in bewilderment. Lyra had raced all the way to the headmistress's office and asked to be excused from the school until further notice.   
"Certainly not Lyra, We can't just go letting children run around in the world when they should be studying. Now go to your first class, now." There was firmness in her voice that demanded respect and obedience, so Lyra left with a heavy heart to go to her classes. She spent the whole day searching her books so she could ask the althiometer what she should do but all it ever seemed to say, however she asked it, was on the water, leave on the water This made no sense to Lyra and so she was forced to climb back up the stairs to her dormitory. At the top of the stairs however, she heard a very familiar voice.   
"Lyra, we need you, the angels and the Witches are dying faster than we can fire our arrows. Your part in this is not over yet." All this was said to Lyra from somewhere above her and she didn't dare look up for fear of disappointment. But she was too excited to not look up, so she did and there was Serafina Pekkala, hovering above her through an open skylight.   
"Serafina!" Lyra whispered, "I will come, but they won't let me out of here, I tried to come this morning but…"  
"Hush child" Serafina replied soothingly, "Everything is sorted, we shall fly again together, as Will requested, I shall love you as my daughter, until I die." She smiled so kindly and with understanding of Lyra that seemed deeper than Lyra's own. "Now we must hurry, come, I shall meet you outside the door to the garden, go swiftly my child" and with that she was gone, the swoosh of her cloud pine ringing in Lyra's ears. She walked into her room quietly and retrieved her small backpack in which she placed the althiometer. Then she crept down the stairs, Pantalaimon leading the way with his beautiful red fur, which glinted in the moonlight.  
She had to hide in a broom cupboard once as the caretaker walked past and his small poodle dæmon trotted along beside him, sniffing at the cupboard while Lyra tried not to breathe. Eventually the hallway was quiet once more and she and Pantalaimon crept out the back door, and found Serafina alighting on the rockery.   
Serafina had a bag of Lyra's belongings, including her furs, which she had used in Bolvangar and something small and quite heavy for it's size. She looked up at the witch but her expression revealed nothing.   
"I must leave you now Lyra, there is a terrible battle," Serafina said, distracted "I must help my sisters. Go to the canal in this town, the Gyptians are waiting there, be prepared for a task of a similar importance to your last one." Lyra simply stared as the whoosh of the cloud pine branch faded away into the distance, to be replaced by the gentle swaying of the huge oaks on the other side of the garden  
She pulled the althiometer from her bag and began to laboriously turn the needles, nothing like she had used to when she had first me Serafina or her dæmon, on the deck of the liner bound for the North. After what seemed like an hour of searching through books in the warm air she finally thought she had the intentions of the witches assessed. She had to go to the Canal and travel on the water. Of course this made little sense to her, but it was quite often that the Althiometer made little sense to her recently so she shrugged, placed her books and the golden instrument into her bag and set off, dragging the bulky furs behind her.   
Lyra was panting and puffing for about ten minutes and by this time her legs were feeling weak and even Pantalaimon's darting from shadow to shadow had slowed.  
"Wait Pan, I have to rest" she puffed and Pantalaimon stopped beside the large marble pillar marking the corner of the town square. She shrugged her bag off her shoulder and walked slowly to the well in the centre. Bringing the bucket upwards, she splashed her face with the chill water and dipped her hand in to drink some of the refreshing water when Pantalaimon came dashing up to her and she felt the urgency in his voice.  
"Lyra, there are men shouting by the canal, I couldn't get close enough really, but some of them are Tartars and they have guns." With all of her weariness gone, she leapt up and sprinted to her bags. As she picked them up however, a low clang told her that something had fallen out of her rucksack, but she didn't stop to think what it might have been before she was off down the road, racing toward the canal, her bags flailing behind her.   
When she got close to the riverbank she spotted the men that Pan had spoken about, and they were definitely Tartars. The arctic Wolf dæmons constantly prowled up and down the bank and the booming voice she knew so well came echoing off the walls as John Faa yelled at the Tartar captain.  
"We are travelling through this waterway whether you like it or not, Sir" he boomed, with deliberate sarcasm on the Sir. "We have perfect rights through here and nobody is going to stop us." Suddenly Lyra caught a movement out of the corner of her eye and she realised that it was Farder Coram's beautiful cat dæmon beckoning at her to come to the shadowy hull of the boat. Lyra crept there through the shadows of the buildings and before she knew what was happening, she was inside, the door was shut and the boat was moving, the Tartar's voice trailing along behind the boat. The warmth enveloped her and Farder Coram pushed her down into a chair and motioned for her to keep quiet.  
A shadowy form crept through the alleys. A black cat crept along behind the form, a shadowy black cat, scrawny and mangy; it's fur patchy and dull. The emaciated animal would have seemed dead if not for the fiery gleam in it's eyes, eyes like those of a man dying with a burning fever, half mad, yet half knowing and understanding. The black figure wrapped in shawls crept in front of it, scanning the floor. Suddenly it found what it was looking for and bent down to pick it up, the small, yet surprisingly heavy, object was picked up and examined closely, by the figure and it's dæmon, and the bundle of rags and emaciated flesh grinned suddenly, a grin of malice and hatred, the single tooth of that grin glinting in the dull naphtha light. The cloaked figure began to chuckle, and then to laugh. The laugh was a high-pitched cackle, ringing out over the town, emanating from where Lyra's bags had been not an hour before.  



	2. Part Two

Chapter 3: Burglars  
Three days ago, Will had stood outside of the small apartment and waved Mary off. She had gone to a Job interview in Geneva, invited by her former colleague, Oliver Payne. Dr. Payne had found out that Lord Boreal, or Sir Charles as he had called himself in this world had been a miser and a very untrustworthy man, and so had praised Mary for what she did and invited her to come and work with him. So she had gone, leaving Will alone in the flat with his mother. On the very first morning that she was gone he had received a phone call. It rang shrill and high pitched in the depressing silence that enveloped the stuffy, carpeted room and it had startled him when he had heard it, bringing him out of his thoughts. He picked it up tentatively and spoke a few words of little meaning, as he always did.   
The answer that came brought out of his reverie and made him step over to the window and peer out, suspiciously. "Hello William," the voice said in a smooth, accented voice, "I want to talk to you about a certain trip your father made a few years back, I'm a journalist and I'm just collecting information on this subject."   
Will took a long time to answer, the voice instantly reminded him of the tall, blond man whom he had run away from. After killing his partner, Will had run away from his house, taking some letters of his fathers with him, 'And that was when this whole affair had started' he thought 'right after that, under the hornbeam trees' and it was this thought that kept him from slamming the phone down and phoning Mary straight away. "Mmm?" he said into the receiver, trying to sound bored.  
"Well, boy" The voice continued in it's half-patronising tone which Will found annoying "There's no need to be blunt with you, we know there was a portal into another World somewhere in Oxford, and yes," he said in response to Will's involuntary gasp "We know you went through it with a girl who called herself Lizzie Brooks. What you may not know, is that this portal has strangely disappeared. Now we were trying to examine this portal, to make it safe for others to pass through, but alas, now we cannot."  
"What do you want me to do about it?" asked Will, his voice shaking with rage 'Trying to make it safe?' They would have used it to kill people, and cause a war or create weapons!  
"Well my boy," the voice continued "As it happens, we ran into an acquaintance of yours, right before he 'disappeared'" the blond man put extra emphasis on this word and Will felt that he knew what had really happened. "He said that only children can enter this world, and as far as we know, you and the girl Lizzie are the only ones who know, and any other child would tell their friends and thus, the secret would be revealed. We want you to come with us to the North Pole, where we believe your father had the location of another portal. According to an Eskimo friend of ours, we have reason to believe that this portal has not yet been closed and we wish to-" The blond man's voice was cut off as Will slammed down the phone.   
Of course! Why had he not thought of it before? The portal in the Arctic, which was mentioned in the letters from his father could be a possibility. Will dashed into his small room and grabbed the papers from under his mattress. He then dashed back down the corridor and into the living room where he picked up the phone and dialled Mary's number. She must have been on the plane, or something, but it was her answer phone. He left a message saying that he had found a possible entry to a different world and to contact him as soon as possible. The next day she had phoned him back and expressed a huge excitement at the prospect. She had instructed him to go to the town and buy equipment and suitable provisions for the North. She also told him that she would return in a few days, to get ready for the trip.  
The next two days Will spent in the town centre of Oxford, buying coats and thermal clothes. He was in the exploring shops, buying maps of the area and then he took everything back to Mary's flat to study the maps and to try on all the clothes. When he got back however, he got a nasty surprise. The front door was open and his mother was sitting at the table crying. He dashed in, dumping the bags on the floor by the door to his bedroom. Will rushed over to her, calming and soothing her and she began to calm down.  
"Mum, you have to tell me exactly what happened," he said, expecting a burbling reply of which he could make little sense, but she gave every detail well and coherently.  
"The men ... came back, and they ... threatened to kill me if ... I didn't tell them ... where your fathers letters ... were hidden." She said, between sobs. Will was feeling cold fear, not just normal fear, he had dealt with that before, but mind numbing fear, paralysing fear. He managed to nod and his mother went on. "I had to tell them Will, darling, I had to." Will found himself standing beside his chest in his room, Kirjava moving silently and jerkily, like himself and slowly opening the shattered lid of the silver ornate box where he put the letters when he went out. Inside there were nine pieces of metal and a wooden hilt, the remains of the subtle knife. Nothing else, no letters, no leather case, nothing else. Will was lost, stuck in the wrong Oxford forever.  
  
Chapter 4:The Voyage  
  
Lyra sat in the semi-dark, trying to make her eyes come into focus. The dim form of Farder Coram sat opposite her and she could just see, if she craned her neck, the bank of the canal with it's trees and houses rushing past, as if it was late for an urgent appointment. The sounds of the Tartars had died away and gradually more trees replaced the thinning buildings and then there were no more at all. Pantalaimon lay curled up round her neck, snoozing in the cool cabin.   
Suddenly John Faa burst through the door at the end of the narrow room, bringing a rush of air right through the boat, ruffling the fur of the cat dæmon who was sat next to Farder Coram's hand  
"Lyra! Child, it's so good to see you!" boomed John Faa and sharp anbaric light flared into being as he clicked a switch, shrugging his heavy cloak onto a chair.   
"Lord Faa!" Lyra said, beaming as she rushed up to him and hugged his mighty form. He chuckled and peeled her off.   
"Now Lyra, this isn't a 'fun' trip," he said, his smile fading "It's very serious, now sit down, we must tell you all about the situation." Lyra obediently sat on the edge of the bench, straightening her hair after the 'collision' with Lord Faa. She was just about to ask what the problems were when Farder Coram cut in.  
"Hush Child," he said, and as he moved into the light, she was startled how old and frail he looked, much older than she remembered him and John Faa was growing grey hair as well. "Lyra we do not wish you to know this, but it appears that we can do nothing about it. The spectres are pouring into this world Lyra, through the hole your father made in the fabric of the sky. They are consuming everything in their path, not only human life but animal and plant life aswell, they are leaving behind a barren wasteland in which not even the bears can live in. The witches have named you Eve, mother of all and they demand that you are taken to their council. Serafina came to tell me in person, and I believe she spoke to you too" Lyra nodded confirmation "She has now gone back to the North, to help her Sisters defend their beloved Lake Enara. They need you Lyra." Lyra stood up and walked slowly out on deck. She climbed up onto the roof and sat with her feet dangling over the edge.   
"What'll we do Pan?" she asked  
"Help Serafina of course" he replied  
"Yes but it all sounds so, well, so impossible, me and you against the whole of the spectre army"  
Pantalaimon said nothing, and she knew this was because he was afraid, just as she was, not afraid of death, because it was worse than that, and in death, she would see Will again. But getting attacked by a spectre, that was worse than death, that was eternal torment, being constantly oblivious to everything around you.   
She looked up at the stars, as she had done on her last day in Cittagazze, and the constellations were the same. There was that funny shaped frying pan, the slightly unbalanced square, and than the arrow pointing to the hourglass, the symbol of life, her astronomy teacher had told her. 'Will will be living under these very same stars, perhaps he's even looking at them now.' she thought. She wanted to stay out there all night, lying on the roof of the boat, with Pantalaimon curled around her neck, but she shivered in the cool night air, and trudged inside, spirits low.   
They sailed for days, and after the first day they met up with a few more canal boats, among them the Costas and Lyra crossed stayed with them, as John Faa's boat was the council boat. Apparently the Gyptians were gathering together in the biggest gathering since Lord Asriel, granting the Gyptians rights of passage in the Fens, passed the waterway laws. Once or twice she felt that she wanted to get the althiometer out of her pack and ask it about Will and also about the witches, but she didn't because she thought knew what she would find. "Will is in his own world, he misses you. The witches are fighting a losing battle" She only knew what the signs for this were because she had received that answer so many times on the boat, she had memorised it. "Anyway," she thought, "I don't feel like doing hard work now, and reading the althiometer is so much hard work." So she sat down on the bench, waiting for Ma Costa to call her for supper.  
Supper was freshly caught eels and a very tasty vegetable, which was slightly crunchy and had a reddish tinge to the underside of the 'leaves' (Lyra could think of no better way to describe them). When the supper was finished, Tony Costa went through to get the beds ready and Lyra was left with Ma Costa.  
"Lyra," she began and Lyra looked up into her tanned face and her bright blue eyes. "Lord Faa has told me to give you this," she held out a small black object, "Heavens knows what it is or where it comes from, he just handed it over to me and told me to give it to you when no-one else was around. So here you are." She held out the object and Lyra gingerly took it. It had stirred a memory in the back of her mind, a memory that she had had just a few days before and once again, she tried to grasp it.   
She closed her eyes and tried to remember, Serafina had given her something like it, if only she could remember where she had seen it before. But then Tony Costa came back in and announced that the beds were ready and it was pushed from her mind as she stumbled through the door. She hadn't realised how tired she was. She clambered into the narrow bunk, put her mysterious item underneath her pillow and fell asleep instantly, Pantalaimon curled around her neck, as always.   
The first thing that she remembered about the dream was the rolling hills, stretching away forever, it seemed, but there was something wrong with them that she couldn't quite place, it was as if she was looking through some stained glass, giving everything a half-shimmering appearance and giving it a bluish hint, like it was dusk. But there was no sun to be visible in the reddening sky and there was no birds singing, no breeze swaying the trees, no nothing, it was as if time stood still.   
Suddenly she was up on the highest hill, looking down over the land from an outcropping of rock. She turned and found that the rock that she was standing on angled downwards, straight into the rock of the hill. She didn't take any steps, but she was floating down the slope, towards some great stone doors, intricately carved with pictures of angels and other beings. Directly in the centre was what looked like a castle, but made into a fortress, with gun turrets and gatehouses. It was unmistakeably the clouded mountain; residence of the Almighty, God, the same God Lyra's parents had dragged down into the abyss. But Lyra knew nothing of that, and then she was through the doors, coming into a huge domed room with nothing on the roof except blackness. She knew without having to look behind her that the great doors had swung shut and had disappeared.   
Suddenly she was plunged into Darkness, nothing was there and for one terrifying moment she thought she had gone blind. But then a gleam of light began to emanate from the ceiling, illuminating the room in the soft glow of starlight, made blue-grey by the dream's strange sheen. Then the whole night sky illuminated before her, all the constellations, everything, except one. Orion, the mighty warrior was missing, leaving a black space where he should have been.  
Lyra was then intensely aware of another presence beside her and as she swirled to look, the night sky above her vanished, plunging the room into what should have been darkness, but a cold, dark light was coming from the ragged figure next to her. She could feel the evil emanating from his form, and he spoke, chilling words that made Lyra shiver, he said:  
"Eve, Mother of All, the time has come for my revenge. Oh yes, I know who your parents were, and I know how they died, oh yes," He cackled, a hideous screeching noise that froze Lyra's feet to the floor, she couldn't take her eyes off his hideously mutated face. "I can enter your dreams, Lyra, an unusual gift you gave me, left it on the Oxford roads you did, so eager were you to get to your ship," He sneered cruelly because it was obvious from the look on her face that Lyra had no idea what he was talking about. Suddenly he became serious. "I will have my revenge Lyra, on you and that snivelling dæmon of yours, I disposed of your parents already, but I will not bow down to the Prophecy of men! Never! I will change the future, and I will rule the World again, Lyra. I Will Have Revenge!" He vanished and Lyra was enveloped in Fire, Blue fire, but still she could feel the scorching of her skin, as every nerve cried out against this torture. As the echoing of the ragged man's last words died away, she screamed in pain.  



End file.
